Question: Can a 7-person committee for a 30 lot strata complex appoint a new strata manager without consulting owners?
Due to unpleasant behaviour from some committee members, our strata managers quit. The committee has now appointed a new strata manager without consulting with the owners. The committee has not provided any information concerning the decision making process for choosing the strata manager.
Answer: A body corporate manager must be appointed at a general meeting of owners.
The legislation clearly states body corporate managers must be appointed at a general meeting of owners.
Every body corporate manager will know this so it would be a surprise if you had a manager acting on the committee’s appointment only – and this would be a significant red flag. The manager may be advising the committee on a pro bono basis to help get to the point where an EGM can be called so an appointment can be confirmed. If so, that’s not a bad thing.
If your previous managers have resigned, there is no timeline to appoint a new manager. There is no obligation to have a body corporate manager. Many schemes, particularly smaller sites, self-manage. Effectively, the committee are the managers of your site in the current circumstances.
A scheme of your size will most likely want to have a professional body corporate manager and that means calling an EGM to appoint someone. It would be normal for the committee to lead this process. It sounds like they have been talking to at least one company that can be nominated. The committee are not obliged to tell you how they selected a company, but good communication makes for good schemes so it makes sense for the committee to tell owners about the selection process. To be considered for appointment, the body corporate management company will need to submit a motion and contract proposal to all owners. If you are unhappy with the proposal, you can vote no. An appointment is by a majority in an ordinary resolution. If more owners vote no than yes, the proposal is rejected.
As an individual owner, you have the option of seeking your own quote from a management company and submitting that for inclusion on the next EGM notice. You can include explanatory notes about why you selected the company. If a majority of owners vote for that company, they will be appointed.
You can also call an EGM by arranging for 25 per cent of owners to call for the meeting in writing. If this happens, the committee is obliged to hold a meeting within six weeks of receiving the notice.
If the body corporate manager and the committee are both behaving as if the manager is appointed and not taking any action to call an EGM, this is a more serious situation. You may need to seek an urgent order from the Commissioner’s office to stop this but that would be an extreme circumstance.
Perhaps most of all, your scheme needs to gather as many owners as possible and talk to each other. It sounds like chaos at the moment. If things are going to get better, you will need the consensus of the owners. If you can participate in a collaborative process, things can improve. If not, you are all going to face some difficult problems.
See the BCCM website for more detail on calling an EGM:
Calling an extraordinary general meeting
William Marquand
Tower Body Corporate
E: willmarquand@towerbodycorporate.com.au
P: 07 5609 4924
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